Food for Thought Report 5.26

Together our two top performers have been around for more than half a century. For our low performer, ten months has proved not enough time to perfect health and safety procedures.

We start with the oldest cafe in Lubbock. The Doll House Cafe at 1717 Avenue K had a perfect health inspection. Owner Shirley Amburn says, "We just keep it as clean as we can and if we make a mistake, we hope somebody will tell us and they usually do. My customers are rather vocal and have been coming for years."

Here is a complete list of the restaurants and their violations for the week ending on 5/26/05.

Shirley, her cook Tom, and one waitress keep the restaurant going. It's been at the Avenue K location for 40 years. Shirley says they're specialties are the roast beef and chocolate and coconut pies. She claims their burgers though are the best in town. She explains, "There's nothing fancy here, just down home cookin'."

J&M Bar-B-Que at 3605 34th Street has perfected the art of bar-b-que over their 12 years in Lubbock. They've also perfected complying with city health codes. General Manager Todd Williams says, "We work hard on keeping the place clean. The main thing is to wash your hands every time."

Todd says they take health regulations very seriously. As a small restaurant, they take pride in keeping customers safe and that means keeping their products at the right temperature. He says, "Meat temperatures are very important, cold temps are very important. We train employees once a month for hot and cold temps."

Our only low performing restaurant can be found at 5130 80th Street. Nirvana Indian Cuisine is fairly new to Lubbock. The restaurant's foreign chefs are trying hard to master the art of passing the city's tough health inspections. General Manager Dustin Smith says, "We're always striving to be within the health code. It's just a learning experience for them."

Nirvana had six critical violations.

Melon on a buffet bar was held at 57 degrees. Cold foods must be held at 45 degrees or cooler.

Soiled wiping clothes were stored on counter tops. Dustin says, "It's not general practice to leave stuff like that out. When they came it was 1:15 PM and we had just got hit."

Ready to eat potentially hazardous foods were not date marked. Dustin explains "I've talked to them about date marking. We've corrected all that. I just want everyone to understand everything we make on a daily basis is used or thrown away."

Two hand sinks were out of paper towels

A reach in cooler was missing a thermometer.Regarding that violation, Dustin says, "I've probably got two thermometers for every cooler I've got now."

Nirvana's last violation came for a can opener and knives that were soiled. Dustin says, "I got rid of that can opener completely."

Nirvana did have a follow-up inspection with the health department the very next day. Every violation had been corrected.